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JÖRGEN DAFGÅRD is a Sweden-based full time professional composer. Having just finished his diploma studies Dafgård made a striking debut in 2000 with his orchestral work Veils. As first prize winner at the Stockholm Berwald Hall and top ten contribution in the international Masterprize competition Veils has been performed a dozen times and has been heard on radio all around the world. In 2013 Jörgen Dafgård was Composer of Spring at the Berwald Hall, where many of his orchestral works were performed, including a premiere of the clarinet concerto Caprism. In 2017 the premiere of Dafgård's soprano saxophone concerto Abrasax with Anders Paulsson was a great success. CONTACT jorgen@jorgendafgard.com |
News 20 September 2024
Jörgen Dafgård’s double concerto Open Air will have its German premiere on September 28 in Stade, Germany. The soloists Martin and Cecilia Gelland, on violin and viola respectively, will perform the concerto with the Öresund Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Lennart Fredriksson in the chuch of St Wilhadi in the centre of Stade.
In May 2023 Open Air was premiered and performed on a tour in Sweden and Denmark with Duo Gelland and Kammarorkester Öresund. It will also be performed with the co-commissioning orchestra Norrbotten Kammar- orkester later on. Open Air is dedicated to Duo Gelland, who has described the three movements of the concerto like this: ”Exuberant first and last movements while the middle one might be the most touchingly and profoundly romantic music ever composed for us”.  Duo Gelland and Kammarorkester Öresund rehearsing Open Air 27 August 2024
Together with the Alma Quartet, the French clarinetist Samuel Berthod, now residing in Sweden, will open the 2024/25 season of the Lund Chamber Music Society with a program featuring Jörgen Dafgård’s Clarinet Quintet Whims and Wizardry among other works. The concert takes place at Magle Konserthus in Lund on Monday 2 September at 7 pm. The program also features Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet in A Major KV 581 as well as music by Korngold and soloist Samuel Berthod. The Alma Quartet consists of Malin Nyström and Anna Rosén on violin, Linda Fredriksson on viola and Ann-Kersti Goa on cello.
Whims and Wizardry was written in 2012 for the Stöde Music Week, where it was premiered by ARD-prizewinner Sebastian Manz and a star-straddled international string quartet. In 2013 Whims and Wizardry was nominated for the Swedish Music Publishers Prize in the chamber music cathegory and in the following two years it was performed in concert by Stefan Harg and the Dahlkvist Quartet as well as Samuel Berhod and the Weber Quartet. Whims and Wizardry is written in four movements.  The Alma Quartet Samuel Berthod 17 March 2024
Jörgen Dafgård has started work on a cello concerto for Amalie Stalheim. The premiere is to take place with the Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra in Norway during the season 2025/2026.
Having received multiple awards, such as the Swedish Soloist Prize in 2018, the Norwegian Soloist Prize in 2021 and being named ”Rising Star” by the BBC Music Magazine in 2021, Amalie Stalheim is in the middle of a sky-rocketing international career. Jörgen Dafgård has written many solo concertos. The cello concerto has been in planning for a long time and both composer and soloist are now looking very much forward to collaborating. Plans for coming international performances of the cello concerto are now taking shape in talks with conductors and orchestras.   Jörgen Dafgård Amalie Stalheim 4 November 2023
Jörgen Dafgård’s Iridescence is one of the solo pieces included on Anders Paulsson’s new SACD Solitary Poems, which has now been released on BIS. The release on November 4 was celebrated with a concert in Storkyrkan in Stockholm, where Anders Paulsson performed Iridescence and other pieces written for him which are included on the SACD. The record title Solitary Poems is also the name of a project which Anders Paulsson started in response to the Covid-19 pandemic where he commissioned solo pieces from composers, many of which pieces ended up on the SACD.
The performance of Iridescence in Storkyrkan was Anders Paulsson’s fourth concert performance of the piece since the premiere last summer. Due to its virtuoso nature Anders Paulsson usually performs the piece at the end of a concert, to great effect. This was also the case in Storkyrkan. The SACD Solitary Poems is available in shops and can also be heard on Spotify. Here is Anders Paulsson’s recording of Iridescence on Spotify.   Jörgen Dafgård and Anders Paulsson at the release concert in Storkyrkan. Cover of the SACD Solitary Poems. 15 May 2023
Jörgen Dafgård’s new double concerto Open Air for violin and viola had its world premiere on May 7 at Palladium, Malmö, Sweden, with Duo Gelland and Kammarorkester Öresund, conducted by Lennart Fredriksson. This was also the start of a short tour in the Öresund region, and a week later, on May 13, the work had its Danish premiere at Musikhøjskolen, Copenhagen. The final concert of the short tour took place at Magle concert house in Lund, Sweden, on May 14.
Next year a German tour with the work to Lübeck and Berlin is planned. Concerts with the co-commissioning orchestra Norrbotten Kammarorkester will follow later on.  Soloists Martin and Cecilia Gelland, composer Jörgen Dafgård, concertmaster Annika Gustafsson and conductor Lennart Fredriksson after the Danish premiere of Open Air 9 Mar 2023
In September 2022, Jörgen Dafgård began work on a new double concerto, which was completed and delivered in February. The work, titled Open Air, is written for violin, viola and string orchestra and has a total playing time of around 26 minutes. Jörgen Dafgård and the soloists Martin and Cecilia Gelland, known as Duo Gelland, had for some years been looking for an opportunity to collaborate around a double concerto. In 2017, Dafgård had written Four Character Pieces for Duo Gelland, which they toured with in America in the Autumn of 2017. A joint commission from Kammarorkester Öresund and Norrbotten Kammarorkester in 2021, supported by the Swedish Cultural Council and the Helge Ax:son Johnson foundation, then made it possible to fulfill the plan for a double concerto. The resulting work: Open Air – Concerto for Violin, Viola and String Orchestra, is in three movements and musically dominated by a fresh open air character, which has given it its descriptive title.
Kammarorkester Öresund, consisting of musicians from both sides of Öresund and led by Lennart Fredriksson, have now started rehearsing the double concerto and recently had their first rehearsal with Duo Gelland. The premiere of Open Air will take place at Palladium, Malmö, on May 7, at 4 pm, followed by concerts in Copen-hagen and Lund on May 13 and 14. Concerts in Lübeck and in Norrbotten, with Norrbotten Kammarorkester, will follow later on. A group of children from Malmö Kulturskola will work creatively with Duo Gelland and attend an orchestra rehearsal of Open Air, visualizing the music in paintings which will be exhibited at the premiere and the following concerts.   Rehearsal with Kammarorkester Öresund Martin and Cecilia Gelland 21 Jan 2023
In July Jörgen Dafgård’s Iridescence for soprano saxophone solo was premiered by Anders Paulsson, both on Youtube and live in Öregrund. Anders Paulsson also performed the piece in Sofia kyrka on December 3, at a concert marking the completion of his project Solitary Poems, as can be heard here. Next, Iridescence will be performed by Anders Paulsson in Slottskyrkan, Stockholm, on April 22, at 10 pm.
Iridescence has also been selected, and recorded in January, for a Super Audio CD with works from the project Solitary Poems, performed by Anders Paulsson, soon to be released on BIS.   Score cover of Iridescence Anders Paulsson 13 Dec 2022
A new bass clarinet concerto by Jörgen Dafgård titled Black Swan is now completed. The initiative to this work originally came from Carl-Johan Stjernström, who had asked Dafgård for a really beautiful piece för bass clarinet and strings, an idea which came to grow to a three movement solo concerto with a playing time of 25 minutes. The title Black Swan refers both to Carl-Johan Stjernström’s pitch black bass clarinet and to recent unforeseen historical events reflected in the music. Black Swan has been commissioned by C-Y Contemporary, with support from the Swedish Cultural Council and the Helge Ax:son Johnson foundation, for Carl-Johan Stjernström and Old Ox Chamber Orchestra.
  Carl-Johan Stjernström Old Ox Chamber Orchestra 05 Sep 2022
On the 3rd of September Jörgen Dafgård’s daughter Emilie, architect and designer of this website, got married to Aras Sedhagat Amoli at the castle of Kaggeholm on Ekerö. The couple made their entrance to the open air ceremony accompanied by a wedding march for harp written for the occasion by Jörgen Dafgård and premiered by Miriam Klein Strandberg. The piece is written in a modal fairy-tale style reminiscent of Ravel and is the third work by Dafgård written for a wedding (the other ones being an early piano piece from 1989 and a concluding voluntary for organ from 1999). Wedding March for harp is around 3 minutes and 20 seconds long, which made it well suited for the walk from the castle terrace to the ceremony place.
  The wedding couple in front of the castle of Kaggeholm Miriam Klein Strandberg 01 Jul 2022
Today Jörgen Dafgård's new solo piece Iridescence for soprano saxophone has its premiere on Youtube, performed by the virtuoso Anders Paulsson. Iridescence is Jörgen Dafgårds contribution to the series Solitary Poems, initiated by Anders Paulsson in response to the difficult situation of freelance musicians in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. Iridescence is built upon the final cadenza of Dafgård’s soprano saxophone concerto Abrasax. The title Iridescence refers to the phenomenon of certain surfaces that appear to gradually change color as the angle of view or the angle of illumination changes. Examples of iridescence include soap bubbles, feathers, butterfly wings and seahell nacre, as well as certain minerals. It is often created by structural coloration. Iridescence for Soprano Saxophone Solo is published by Gehrmans. On Friday the 8th of July, Iridescence will have its live premiere in Öregrund.
 Still from the video created and edited by Markus Heggestad. Acoustic design by Håkan Sjögren / SonoConsult 12 Jun 2022
After two full days of work the recording of Jörgen Dafgård's new double concerto Tandem for violin and bass clarinet is now finished. The recording sessions have taken place in the wonderful acoustics of Malmö Live, with violin soloist Benjamin Schmid, bass clarinet soloist Carl-Johan Stjernström and the string orchestra Musica Vitae, conducted by Joachim Gustafsson, all placed in a circle around the microphone setup. The recording has been made by Daniel Davidsen for Toccata Classics using the 3D surround sound system Dolby Atmos 7.1.4 @ 352.8 kHz.
 From left to right: Joachim Gustafsson, Carl-Johan Stjernström, Benjamin Schmid and Jörgen Dafgård 06 Mar 2022
Jörgen Dafgård is currently working on a double concerto for violin, bass clarinet and string orchestra, which is nearing completion. The 25 minute work is written for the world renowned Austrian violinist Benjamin Schmid, who is also the artistic leader of the commissioning orchestra Musica Vitae, and the Swedish bass clarinetist Carl-Johan Stjernström. In February there was a common rehearsal of the concerto's first two movements and early in April a rehearsal of the concluding third movement is scheduled. In June the double concerto will be recorded for a coming CD on Toccata focusing on concertos for bass clarinet and with Carl-Johan Stjernström as soloist on all the works, joined by the Malmö Symphony Orchestra and Musica Vitae, under the direction of Joachim Gustafsson. The live premiere of Dafgård's double concerto will wait until the Spring of 2023, preliminarily, by which time Musica Vitae, Benjamin Schmid and Carl-Johan Stjernström plan to be touring with the work.
  Carl-Johan Stjernström Musica Vitae Benjamin Schmid 28 Nov 2021
Today Jörgen Dafgård's Kosmisk moder (Cosmic Mother) for mixed choir divisi and cello had its premiere as a concert movie at Odeum in Lund. The premiere was part of a movie concert arranged by Körcentrum Syd and included in the festival Lund Contemporary, where six new works for choir were presented which had been commissioned or co-commissioned by Körcentrum Syd. The movie screening was preceded by a panel discussion where Dafgård participated. The event also marked the release of the concert movies on YouTube. Jörgen Dafgård's Kosmisk Moder can be viewed here, as performed by Petri Sångare and Lisa Ekmark under the direction of Johan-Magnus Sjöberg. Kosmisk moder is published by Gehrmans. A few posts below you can read about the identically titled painting by Waldemar Lorentzon and poem by Erik Lindegren which Dafgård set to music, as well as some more details about the work.
 From the movie presenting Kosmisk moder with Petri Sångare and Lisa Ekmark 06 Jun 2021
On Saturday the 12th of June the ensemble Norrbotten NEO will perform Jörgen Dafgård's Mahler Revisited at a concert centered around Gustav Mahler, with the world renowned singer Peter Mattei as guest artist. The concert takes place in Studio Acusticum in Piteå, Sweden at 7:00 pm and will be sent on-line here.
Mahler Revisited was commissioned by the newspaper Dagens Nyheter in 2010 and recorded on CD by the Peärls Before Swïne Experience in 2011. Over the years it has been performed by different ensembles and made great success at venues such as the Nordic Music Days in Helsinki, the Pärnu Music Festival and Konserthuset, Stockholm. The score is published by Gehrmans.   Score cover of Mahler Revisited Norrbotten NEO 01 Dec 2020
Tonight KammarensembleN, directed by Christian Karlsen, will premiere a collective composition by members of the Swedish Composers Society at the Stockholm Concert Hall. The concert will be streamed live at Konserthuset Play tonight at 7:00 pm. The event has the headline Delad ensamhet or Shared Loneliness and is an artistic comment on the current situation in society. The composition is in three parts, called Mosaic Tales I-III and Jörgen Dafgård's contribution can be heard towards the end of Mosaic Tales III.
 Jörgen Dafgård's contribution to Mosaic Tales III 28 Oct 2020
The surrealistic painting "Kosmisk moder" (Cosmic Mother) by Waldemar Lorentzon inspired Erik Lindegren to write a poem with the same title. Jörgen Dafgård has now set this poem to music. Kosmisk moder for four- to eight-part mixed choir and violoncello will be premiered by Petri Sångare and the cellist Mattias Rodrick on the 28th of November 2021 at 3:00 pm as a part of the festival Lund Contemporary. The work has been commissioned by Körcentrum Syd and Petri Sångare with support from the Helge Ax:son Johnson Foundation. It will be published by Gehrmans and also included in their subscription mailing in February.
  "Kosmisk moder" – painting by Waldemar Lorentzon and poem by Erik Lindegren (1935 and 1947, respectively) 12 Aug 2020
A new piano trio by Jörgen Dafgård is now, since June, completed and will soon be published by Gehrmans. The full title of the work is Piano Trio – In Red, where the subtitle In Red has to do with the harmonic colour as well as the intimate quality of the music. Piano Trio – In Red is written in one movement and has a duration of twelve minutes. It has been commissioned by Trio Lindgård Rodrick Öquist with support from the Helge Ax:son Johnson Foundation. The ensemble, consisting of Jonas Lindgård on violin, Mattias Rodrick on cello and Georg Öquist on piano, is now in contact with venues suitable for the coming premiere.
  Score cover of Piano Trio – In Red Trio Lindgård Rodrick Öquist 30 Mar 2020
Tonight at around 8:45 pm Swedish Radio P2 will be broadcasting the world premiere of Jörgen Dafgård's Tableau Vivant for violin and orchestra, recorded last year at Malmö Live with young virtuoso Johan Dalene and Malmö Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Anja Bihlmaier. The program will be available for online listening for the next thirty days here. Tableau Vivant starts at 1:45:50 in the link.
 From the world premiere of Tableau Vivant with Johan Dalene and Malmö Symphony Orchestra. 06 Dec 2019
The pianist and composer Eva Sidén will perform Jörgen Dafgård's piano piece Transcendens at a concert with Swedish music in Vilnius, Lithuania on December the 7th. The concert will take place at the Composers' House and starts at 6:00 pm.
 At the Composers' House in Vilnius, from left to right: Mykolas Natalevičius, Milda Čiužaitė, Jens Hedman, Eva Sidén and Jörgen Dafgård 07 Oct 2019
Finishing his diploma studies in composition in 1999, Jörgen Dafgård has now been active as a full time freelance composer for twenty years. During his last semester at the academy, Dafgård had some concerts with premieres of his, most notably a critically well acclaimed portrait concerto, where seven of Dafgård's works were performed. As a freelance composer Dafgård got his first commission, the cantata The Hidden Music, in the fall of 1999. Soon after that things took off in a bigger way when he won the composition competition of the Swedish Radio and the Berwald Hall with his work Veils for orchestra, which was premiered in april 2000. The success of Veils led to many commissions from orchestras, and in 2004 Dafgård's first symphony, Sinfonia Nº 1, had its premiere with the Nordic Chamber Orchestra. The premiere of Dafgård's Through Fire and Water for large orchestra with the Malmö Symphony Orchestra in 2011 had a big impact and was a "New Smash Hit for Dafgård", to quote one of the review headlines. In 2013 Dafgård was Composer of Spring at the Stockholm Berwald Hall, where five of his orchestral works were performed at five concerts, including a portrait concert where his clarinet concerto Caprism was premiered by Andreas Sundén and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. In 2017 the premiere of the soprano saxophone concerto Abrasax with Anders Paulsson was a great success, as was the premiere of the violin concerto Eclipse with Hugo Ticciati in 2018. In addition to his eleven orchestral works Dafgård has also written many chamber and choir works during his twenty years as a full time freelance composer.
  Program folder from the premiere of Veils in 2000 Jörgen Dafgård in October 2019 09 Feb 2019
Jörgen Dafgård's Tableau Vivant for violin and orchestra got its premiere on the 7th of February with young virtuoso Johan Dalene and Malmö Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Anja Bihlmaier. The work was performed in a both delicately rich and powerful way by soloist and orchestra and was greeted by a cheering audience of a thousand listeners on site at Malmö Live, a concert hall which reproduced the sound in a very fine way. The critic Carlhåkan Larsén praised the soloist and the way "the contrasts of the orchestral playing gives both abundance and sharpness" in the work. The Swedish Radio recorded the premiere for broadcasting on P2 in the near future. Program managers from orchestras in Sweden and Denmark attended the premiere and there has been signs of interest from many orchestras of programming the work for further performances.
    Jörgen Dafgård with Anja Bihlmaier and Johan Dalene at the dress rehearsal and premiere of Tableau Vivant. 28 Jan 2019
Jörgen Dafgård's Tableau Vivant for violin and orchestra will have its world premiere on February the 7th at Malmö Live with the young virtouso Johan Dalene and Malmö Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Anja Bihlmaier. The concert starts at 7 pm and is preceded by an introduction by the composer at 6 pm.
Tableau Vivant is based on the concept of the soloist as a painter and the orchestra as the landscape being painted. While getting more and more involved in the creative act, the painter gets more and more drawn into the ever more living landscape that takes shape on the canvas. Vincent van Gogh may come to mind in this metaphorical description of the interplay between soloist and orchestra in Tableau Vivant and in the work's use of curving lines in counterpoint and alternating differently textured blocks of harmonic and instrumental colour, where the course of events may be seen to reflect the enticement and danger of a strong passion.   Johan Dalene (photo: Nikolaj Lund) Vincent van Gogh: Wheat Field with Cypresses 07 Jan 2019
Jörgen Dafgård's Tableau Vivant for violin and orchestra is now published by Gehrmans. The score is available both in full size and in pocket format. Prior to publication, the score has been slightly revised and redesigned. Composed in 1998, Tableau Vivant is one of Dafgård's earlier orchestral works and the first of them with a soloist in front of the orchestra. The style is intensely lyrical and expressionistic, with a lavish orchestration. Tableau Vivant will have its world premiere at Malmö Live on February 7 at 7 pm with soloist Johan Dalene and Malmö Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Anja Bihlmaier.
  Cover and spread from the score of Tableau Vivant 31 Oct 2018
The premiere of Jörgen Dafgård's violin concerto Eclipse with Hugo Ticciati and Camerata Nordica on a mini tour in the south-east of Sweden was very successful. The new work came to blossoming life in the hands of the musicians led by Ticciati and the orchestra no doubt enjoyed taking part in the immersive interpretations, grounded in Ticciatis dedication and deep understanding of the work.
The performances were introduced by the composer who commented on the ideas behind the work and some personal experiences who had left their mark on its expressive content. Listening to the new work the audience was captured and gripped by the music. Many in the audience were heard sobbing during the tragic second movement. Long applause and many calls followed the end of the final movement and afterwards many in the audience testified about their rich and deeply moving experience. The critic Lena Svensson was on fire as well. In her review in Barometern she wrote about her "Rich music experience… The evening's premiere of Jörgen Dafgård's violin concerto Eclipse is a highlight… Camerata Nordica have a tight interplay with dynamics and power in the performance and completely capture the listener's attention. The supreme soloist Hugo Ticciati on the violin is adroit in every section, up to the very highest note of the instrument. The movements are full of feeling, and one is carried away and gripped by the work's dramatic fluctuations. The concluding movement opens up towards brightness and liberation, and there was long applause and several calls." A longer excerpt from the review can be found under "Press" on this site.  Hugo Ticciati and Camerata Nordica in the Green Hall of the castle of Kalmar (photo: Suvad Mrkonjic) 25 Oct 2018
Jörgen Dafgård's new concerto Eclipse for violin and string orchestra will soon be premiered by Hugo Ticciati and Camerata Nordica. The premiere will take place in Oskarshamn on October 27, followed by performances in Hultsfred and Kalmar on October 28 and 29. The concert program also includes works by Golijov, Pärt and Janáček.
More information about the concerts can be found here and here.   Hugo Ticciati (photo: Marco Borggreve) and Camerata Nordica (photo; Jonas Lindström studio) 25 Sep 2018
Jörgen Dafgård recently finished a concerto for violin and string orchestra with the title Eclipse, which is now published by Gehrmans and will soon be premiered by the soloist Hugo Ticciati and Camerata Nordica.
Eclipse is the third work in a series of solo concertos that started with the clarinet concerto Caprism in 2013 and continued with the soprano saxophone concerto Abrasax in 2016. The concertos are related technically and formally but are built on different material, which has given each concerto its individual character. Dafgård wrote Eclipse around a time when he stayed for a month in Paris, which is reflected stylistically in a certain French idiom shining through. Lightness but also intensity characterizes the outer movements, while the middle movement has more sombre weight. Eclipse is written for and in collaboration with the dynamic soloist Hugo Ticciati.   Cover and example from the score of Eclipse 21 Sep 2018
Jörgen Dafgård's soprano saxophone concerto Abrasax is now available in a new definitive edition published by Gehrmans. For this edition experiences from the recent much appreciated performances with the commissioning orchestras Jönköpings Sinfonietta and Västerås Sinfonietta have been taken into consideration. Abrasax is written for and dedicated to the soloist Anders Paulsson, who has generously shared his thoughts about the solo part. The new edition of Abrasax can be viewed online here.
  The score of Abrasax with an example from the third movement including the virtuoso solo cadenza 09 Aug 2018
The pianist and composer Eva Sidén will perform Jörgen Dafgård's piano piece Transcendens at a concert with Swedish music at the Sandviken Chamber Music Festival on August 11. The concert will take place in Kulturcentrum/Musikverket and starts at 3:00 pm.
 Eva Sidén 16 May 2018
Jörgen Dafgård's Tableau Vivant for violin and orchestra will be premiered early in 2019 by the young prodigy Johan Dalene and the Malmö Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Anja Bihlmaier.
Tableau Vivant is based on the concept of the soloist as a painter and the orchestra as the landscape that he is painting. While getting more and more involved in his creative act, the painter gets more and more drawn into the ever more living landscape that he paints. The concert will take place in Malmö Live at 7pm on February the 7th 2019.  Johan Dalene 09 May 2018
Four works by Jörgen Dafgård are awaiting publication on Gehrmans: the soprano saxophone concerto Abrasax (new edition), Tableau Vivant for violin and orchestra, a new violin concerto titled Eclipse and a new piano trio.
  The music publisher Gehrmans, celebrating 125 years in 2018 21 Apr 2018
Jörgen Dafgård's Volo for string orchestra will be the opening piece of a mini festival in Lund celebrating the centennial jubilee of the Society of Swedish Composers. A program comprising works by nine Swedish composers from the last hundred years will be performed by Kammarorkester Öresund and soloists under the direction of Lennart Fredriksson in Magle Konserthus on April the 22th, starting at 3 pm. This is the eighth performace of Volo since its premiere with Musica Vitae in 2004. Volo is published by Edition Suecia in a slightly revised version from 2009. In this short trailer, made for the Berwald Hall, Jörgen Dafgård tells about the composition of Volo.
Short trailer introducing the performance of Volo by the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and conductor Jukka-Pekka Saraste at the Berwald Hall in 2013. 27 Jan 2018
The performance of Jörgen Dafgård's Abrasax in Västerås was very favourably reviewed by the critic Birgit Ahlberg-Hyse in Västmanlands Läns Tidning:
"Dafgård's saxophone concerto was like tasting a new dish with an untried, very delicious main ingredient. The dark orchestral background provides the melancholy while the soprano saxophone straightens out a hopeful arabesque all the way. In the second movement I enjoyed the groping, questioning and slightly touching thematic wind figures against the orchestra's mood-creating structure and, in the third movement, the exultant pitches that displayed both the instrument's brilliant sonorities and Paulsson's virtuosity. The soprano saxophone may have the leading role but Dafgård has also cared a lot for the composition of the orchestral parts, not least in the winds. Abrasax, Concerto for Soprano Saxophone and Orchestra is a commission from the Västerås Sinfonietta and the Jönköping Sinfonietta. When the cheering audience had calmed down, Anders Paulsson expressed his gratitude for the commissioning of this work. The audience has as much reason to be grateful."   The review. Jörgen Dafgård and soloist Anders Paulsson in the wings after the Västerås performance of Abrasax 26 Jan 2018
Västerås Sinfonietta opened their season with a program which included Jörgen Dafgård's soprano saxophone concerto Abrasax, performed by the virtuoso soloist Anders Paulsson and with Jessica Cottis at the conductor's desk, who with short notice had replaced Joanna Carneiro. The orchestra played with elegance and enthusiasm, inspired by the top notch musicianship of Anders Paulsson. The concerto was very well recieved by the audience, who responded with an unanimous standing ovation, after which Anders Paulsson gave an encore. A recording of the performance can be heard on Soundcloud.
 Jörgen Dafgård, Anders Paulsson and Jessica Cottis on stage in front of the Västerås Sinfonietta 25 Jan 2018
Tonight the star soloist Anders Paulsson performs Jörgen Dafgård's soprano saxophone concerto Abrasax with the Västerås Sinfonietta and the conductor Jessica Cottis. Abrasax is written in three contrasting movements and has a continuous thread running through the whole piece which tells a story of defeat, recovery and ressurection. The premiere of the concerto last year with the Jönköping Sinfonietta was a great success. "What a wonderful experience" was the headline of a review. Abrasax is co-commissioned by the sinfoniettas in Jönköping and Västerås and published by Gehrmans. The concert starts at 7.00 pm at the concert hall of Västerås and is preceded by an introduction at 6.00 pm.
 Anders Paulsson 15 Oct 2017
Jörgen Dafgårds For the Sleeping - Dream Sonata will be performed at two concerts where Erik Ring plays music for viola and electronics. The first concert takes place at Fylkingen in Stockholm on October 22 at 7:00 pm and the second is in Växjö, at Växjö Konsthall on November 12 at 4:00 pm. On the programme also music by Karlheinz Essi, Ned McGowan and Marsel Nichan. Erik Ring has performed For the Sleeping many times, most recently in Uppsala on May 17 this year.
 Erik Ring 15 Oct 2017
The pianist and composer Eva Sidén will perform Jörgen Dafgård's piano piece Transcendens at a concert with Swedish and French music in Malmö on October 27. Eva Sidén will also play three of her own works as well as works by Gilbert Amy and Tristan Murail. The concert will take place in the Red Room at the Inter Arts Center at 7:15 pm and is the second concert in a three day festival celebrating the ten year anniversary of the association C-Y ContemporarY.
Eva Sidén 12 Oct 2017
A collaboration between the internationally acclaimed Duo Gelland and Jörgen Dafgård has become reality thanks to a grant from Helge Ax:son Johnsons Stiftelse. During late summer the new work Four Character Pieces has taken shape, which will shortly have its premiere in the USA. The work has a total duration of about eight minutes and the included duets have the character indications Impetuoso, Dolce espressivo, Giocoso and Rustico e fantastico. Duo Gelland will premiere Four Character Pieces on October 19 at the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis, where the duo will give a walking concert in an exhibition with photorealistic paintings by Karin Broos. The duo will then perform Four Character Pieces on the continuation of their tour in the USA.
 Duo Gelland 21 May 2017
Today Jörgen Dafgård's internationally acclaimed Mahler Revisited will be the starting piece of a concert at the Grünewald Hall in Konserthuset Stockholm at 3 pm with the RSPO Orchestra Academy. The RSPO Orchestra Academy consists of young, very talented musicians and is tied to the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra.
Mahler Revisited, commissioned and launched by the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter in 2010, was published on CD in 2011 in a recording with the Peärls Before Swïne Experience and made great success with other ensembles both at the Nordic Music Days 2013 in Helsinki, Finland and at a live broadcast gala concert at the Pärnu Music Festival 2014 in Estonia. The score to Mahler Revisited is published by Gehrmans.  The RSPO Orchestra Academy 19 May 2017
Today Erik Ring performs Jörgen Dafgård's "For the Sleeping - Dream Sonata" for viola and electronics at a lunch concert with contemporary music in Uppsala. Also on the programme: Sequitur IVb for viola and MaxMsp by Karlheinz Essi. Stadsbiblioteket, Mallas sal, 00.00-00.30 pm.
 Erik Ring 14 Mar 2017
On Thursday the 23rd of March the Aniara Quartet will perform Jörgen Dafgård's String Quartet I at Folkoperan in Stockholm. The concert starts at 3:00 pm och and is a part of the festival which lasts between the 20th and the 26th of March.
String Quartet I consists of five short movements, which are developed from musical cells of different kinds in an expressive and concentrated musical language. The Work has been performed many times and is available on a with the Aniara Quartet. String Quartet I was last performed by the Aniara Quartet at a concert in Växjö in November.  The Aniara quartet, from the left: Mattias Rodrick, Filip Gloria, Erik Ring and Jonas Lindgård 30 Jan 2017
The premiere of Jörgen Dafgård's Concerto for Soprano Saxophone and Orchestra with Anders Paulsson and the Jönköping Sinfonietta under the direction of Johannes Gustavsson was a great success.
During a pre-concert talk Jörgen Dafgård told about the construction of the concerto. The treatment of tone material and composition technique is consistently applied throughout the work but has nevertheless resulted in three movements of completely different expression. The first movement contains a conflict between two characters which ends tragically. The second movement brings recovery and in the third movement a resurrection happens; suddenly everything is possible. With his marvellous solist playing Anders Paulsson made the most of the work together with his fellow musicians and the audience showed their great enthusiasm in an unanimous standing ovation after the performance. Many warm greetings from the audience and musicians alike also followed in the intermission and after the concert. "What a wonderful experience!", Hans Järeby wrote in his review on the following day (see below).  The Jönköping Sinfonietta after the premiere. From the left: Johannes Gustavsson, Jörgen Dafgård. Fifth from the left: Anders Paulsson 30 Jan 2017
With "What a wonderful experience!", Hans Järeby starts his review of Sunday's concert, where Anders Paulsson premiered Jörgen Dafgård's Concerto for Soprano Saxophone and Orchestra together with the Jönköping Sinfonietta under the direction of Johannes Gustavsson. The headline is "New Orchestral Work with Sopranic Class" and the review continues:
 Anders Paulsson (photo: Hans Järeby) 22 Jan 2017
On Sunday the 29th of January the internationally acclaimed soloist Anders Paulsson will give the first performance of Jörgen Dafgård's newly written Concerto for Soprano Saxophone and Orchestra together with Jönköpings Sinfonietta and the conductor Johannes Gustavsson. will take place at Spira in Jönköping and starts at 18 pm.
 The conductor Johannes Gustavsson and the soloist Anders Paulsson. 21 Dec 2016
A concerto for soprano saxophone and orchestra by Jörgen Dafgård has now been completed and published by Gehrmans. The concerto, which is around 26 minutes long and consists of three movements, is written for the internationally acclaimed soloist Anders Paulsson and is a joint commission from Jönköpings Sinfonietta and Västerås Sinfonietta. The premiere will take place in Jönköping on January the 29th under the direction of Johannes Gustavsson.
    Excerpt from the full score of Concerto for Soprano Saxophone and Orchestra by Jörgen Dafgård 13 Dec 2016
Tonight Jörgen Dafgård's Sinfonia No 1 can be heard on Swedish Radio P2 at 11:30 pm. The broadcasting will then be available on the web radio for 30 days. Gérard Korsten conducts the Swedish Chamber Orchestra in a recording from a concert in Örebro Concert House on the third of October 2013 that Swedish Radio P2 now broadcasts for the third time.
 Swedish Chamber Orchestra 03 Nov 2016
On Saturday the 5th of November the Aniara Quartet will perform Jörgen Dafgård's first string quartet at a concert in Växjö Konsthall, Växjö at 4 pm. Works by Reine Jönsson, Thomas Liljeholm, and Gunnar Valkare will also be performed at the concert.
String Quartet I consists of five short movements, which are developed from musical cells of different kinds in an expressive and concentrated musical language. The Work has been performed before on several occasions and is available on a CD with the Aniara Quartet. Read more about the concert on www.mediaartes.net.  The Aniara Quartet 20 Oct 2016
Sebastian Flögel today performs Jörgen Dafgård's For the Sleeping – Dream Sonata for viola och electronics at a concert in Liljeforssalen, Malmö at 6 pm. For the Sleeping has now been performed at least at a dozen concerts.
  Sebastian Flögel 22 Mar 2016
Today Jörgen Dafgård's saxophone quartet Moving and Touching gets its North American premiere at a concert with a Canadian ensemble in the von Kuster Hall in London, Ontario, at 12:30. Moving and Touching is written in five movements and was premiered in Stockholm in 2014 by the Swedish saxophone quartet Rollin' Phones, which has also performed the work at many places in Europe.
 The von Kuster Hall 03 Nov 2015
On Saturday the 7th of November the French clarinetist Samuel Berthod and the Weber string quartet will perform Jörgen Dafgård's clarinet quintet Whims and Wizardry at a concert in the Elim chapel in Norrtälje, Sweden. Also on the program: Sibelius' string quartet Voces Intimae and Brahms' clarinet quintet. Admission: 180 kr, tickets in advance through Norrtälje turistbyrå, roslagen.se.
Jörgen Dafgård's clarinet quintet Whims and Wizardry is written in four movements and was premiered in 2012 by the ARD prize-winning German clarinetist Sebastian Manz and a highly qualified international string quartet. In Autumn 2013 Whims and Wizardry, which is published by Gehrmans, was nominated for the Music Publishers’ Prize in the chamber music cathegory. 
28 Oct 2015
Tonight Jörgen Dafgård's Sinfonia No 1 can be heard on Swedish Radio P2 at 9:20 pm. The broadcasting will thereafter be available on the web radio for 30 days. Sinfonia No 1 starts a little over 20 minutes into the program. Gérard Korsten conducts the Swedish Chamber Orchestra in a recording from a concert in Örebro Concert House on the third of October 2013.
21 May 2015
Today the Swedish saxophone quartet Rollin' Phones will perform parts of Jörgen Dafgård's new saxophone quartet Moving and Touching in Broerekerk, Bolsward in the Netherlands. They also played this program in Paris on the 18th of May and will play it again in Sweden on two occasions in July (26/7: Galtströms kyrka, Njurunda; 28/7: Forshaga kammarmusikdagar).
 The Swedish saxophone quartet Rollin' Phones 06 Apr 2015
On Sunday the 12th of April at 6:00 pm Hässleholms Kyrkas Vocalensemble (the Vocal Ensemble of the Church of Hässleholm) will perform Jörgen Dafgård's newly written cantata Lovely is Your Dwelling in the church of S:t Petri in Malmö. Music by H Schütz, F Mendelssohn and J S Bach is also on the programme.
Lovely is Your Dwelling is a setting of Psalm 84 from the Book of Psalms in the form of a cantata in five movements where three forceful choir movements alternate with two softly lyrical sections focused around solo voices. The work was commissioned by the town of Hässleholm for the centennial celebration of both the town and the church. The premiere in the church of Hässleholm was highly appreciated and the choir will therefore now also present the work in Malmö. The choir's leader Birgitta Roslund is in charge of the musical direction. At the organ Lukas Arvidsson is to be found. Vocal soloists are Emma Silver, soprano and Vanessa Sundblad, mezzosoprano. The soloistic flute part is played by Anna Tengstrand. A string quartet completes the instrumental ensemble.  The Vocal Ensemble of the Church of Hässleholm 14 Nov 2014
Tonight Swedish Radio P2 broadcasts Jörgen Dafgård's portrait concert as composer of spring at the Berwald Hall, in a recording from May 2013 with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Christian Eggen. The concert starts with Esprit (2012), followed by the premiere of the clarinet concerto Caprism (2013) with Andreas Sundén as soloist. After the break, containing interviews with Jörgen Dafgård and Andreas Sundén, the concert ends with Sinfonia No 1 (2004).
Schedule: 0:51:25 Presentation 0:56:36 Esprit 1:21:35 Presentation 1:25:15 Caprism - Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra 1:57:48 Interview 2:15:47 Presentation 2:19:32 Sinfonia No 1 28 Oct 2014
Jörgen Dafgård's new cantata Lovely is Your Dwelling was at its first performance met with overwhelming enthusiasm by the audience in a crowded church. The premiere was performed by Hässleholms Kyrkas Vocalensemble (the Vocal Ensemble of the Church of Hässleholm) together with vocal soloists, flute, string quartet and organ, under the direction of Birgitta Roslund. Lovely is Your Dwelling was the main act at a concert celebrating the 100th anniversary of the church of Hässleholm as well as the town of Hässleholm, founded in the same year.
The premiere got large coverage in the press. In addition to an extensive feature ahead of the premiere, the event was covered by Norra Skånes Tidningar on the news pages, followed by a detailed review in the culture section. Covering the event, Kristina Höjendal described the work as "magnificent, wistful and unique" and under the headline "Sweetly magnficent" these lines were included in the review by the critic Henrik Bergkvist:
 
21 Oct 2014
Ahead of the premiere of Jörgen Dafgård's new work Lovely is Your Dwelling this Sunday the 26th of October a feature was published last week in Norra Skånes Tidningar. It is based on interviews with the composer and some others about the work and it's creation.
 
14 Oct 2014
On Sunday the 26th of October at 6:00 p.m. a new cantata by Jörgen Dafgård will be premiered in the church of Hässleholm. Ljuvlig är din boning or Lovely is Your Dwelling is the title and also the beginning of Psalm 84 from the Book of Psalms, where the lyrics is from. The town of Hässleholm has commissioned the work for the centennial celebration of both the town and the church. Lovely is Your Dwelling is the first first work ever written for the town.
This summer a 25 minute work for choir, soloists and ensemble has gradually taken shape. In it three forceful choir movements alternate with two softly lyrical sections focused around solo voices. Psalm 84 was suitable to set to music for this occasion, according to Dafgård. It is about longing for the house of God, which can also stand for the town as a place to return to. It alternates between forcefully extrovert and tenderly wistful sections in a way that was congenial to set to music in a composition with dramatically contrasting sections. The work will be premiered by Hässleholms Kyrkas Vocalensemble (the Vocal Ensemble of the Church of Hässleholm) together with vocal soloists, flute, string quartet and organ, all under the direction of Birgitta Roslund. Here is more information and here a link for tickets. The Vocal Ensemble of the Church of Hässleholm 03 Sep 2014
Today Jörgen Dafgård's Volo for string orchestra can be heard on Swedish Radio P2 in a recording from a concert 2013 in the Berwald Hall with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Jukka-Pekka Saraste.
At evening on July 10 Swedish Radio P2 also broadcasted Jörgen Dafgård's Sinfonia No 1 with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra conducted by Gerard Korsten. This concert was also broadcasted on April 30. 20 Jul 2014
The performance of Jörgen Dafgård's Mahler Revisited on July 18 at the Pärnu Music Festival was met with enthusiastic acclamation by a large audience in the Pärnu Concert Hall and the composer was also spontaneously congratulated by many after the concert. The Pärnu Music Festival, also known as the Järvi Academy, is a big national event in Estonia and an important international festival. The performance of Mahler Revisited at the festival's gala concert was broadcasted live by Estonian radio and also streamed live on the internet.
 Heili Rosin, Sophia Rahmann, Mikk Murdvee, Indrek Leivategija and Jörgen Dafgård after the performance of Mahler Revisited in Pärnu. Photo: Tiina Tuhkur 14 Jun 2014
Jörgen Dafgård's Mahler Revisited will be performed at the Pärnu Music Festival in Estonia, during the gala concert in Pärnu Music Hall on July 18, at 7 pm, by flutist Heili Rosin, violinist Mikk Murdvee, a cellist and pianist Sophia Rahman. Mikk Murdvee, the violinist, is also one of the members in the Zagros Ensemble, whose performance of Mahler Revisited at the Nordic Music Days in Helsinki, Finland in Autumn 2013 was a success. Here is a video from that occasion:
12 Jun 2014
Today the Swedish newspaper Sydsvenskan has a big interviewing feature where the composers Jörgen Dafgård, Anna-Lena Laurin och Rolf Martinsson talks about writing music, inspiration, motivation and other things.
 The composers Anna-Lena Laurin, Rolf Martinsson and Jörgen Dafgård. Photo: Herman Omstedt / Sydsvenskan. 03 May 2014
Today Stefan Harg and the Dahlkvist Quartet will perform Jörgen Dafgård's clarinet quintet Whims and Wizardry in Västerås Concert Hall at 3 pm. They will also perform Miklós Maros' string quartet nr 3 and Brahms clarinet quintet. The concert is arranged by Uruppförandeklubben.
Whims and Wizardry is written in four movements and was premiered in 2012 by the ARD prize-winning German clarinetist Sebastian Manz and a highly qualified international string quartet. In Autumn 2013 Whims and Wizardry, which is published by Gehrmans, was nominated for the Music Publishers' Prize in the chamber music cathegory.  The Dahlkvist Quartet (Kersti Dahlkvist, Bartosz Cajler, Hanna and Jon Dahlkvist) and Stefan Harg 30 Apr 2014
Tonight Jörgen Dafgård's Sinfonia No 1 can be heard on Swedish Radio P2 at 9:06 pm. The broadcasting will thereafter be available on the web radio for 30 days. Gerard Korsten conducts the Swedish Chamber Orchestra in a recording from a concert in Örebro Concert House on the third of October 2013.
20 Mar 2014
Tonight Jörgen Dafgård's Through Fire and Water for large orchestra can be heard on Swedish Radio P2 at 10:00 pm. The broadcasting will thereafter be available on the web radio for 30 days. Daniel Raiskin conducts the Malmö Symphony Orchestra in a recording from the premiere in 2011, which was a big success, with headlines like "New Smash Hit for Jörgen Dafgård".
 Fire and water, early drawing by Jörgen Dafgård 05 Mar 2014
On Monday the 10th of March the Swedish saxophone quartet Rollin' Phones will premiere Jörgen Dafgård's newly written quartet Moving and Touching. The 20 minutes long five movement work, commissioned by the Rollin'Phones, was written in late Summer and Autumn 2013. The premiere will take place at a concert celebrating Adolphe Sax 200 years, where the Stockholm Saxophone Quartet, Saxtas and others are also performing. Location: Lilla Akademien (Danssalen, hus 3) Norrtullsgatan 14, Stockholm. Free entrance.
 The Rollin' Phones saxophone quartet 27 Feb 2014
Jörgen Dafgård's new clarinet concerto is now ready for publication in a revised and tidied version, with the title Caprism – Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra. The concerto was premiered in May 2013 by Andreas Sundén with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Christian Eggen. The revision has mainly been done in response to suggestions from Sundén concerning the solo part. The score and parts have now been delivered to Dafgård's publisher Gehrmans for publication shortly.
04 Feb 2014
Today at 00:25 pm Jörgen Dafgård's clarinet concerto Caprism can be heard in Klassisk Förmiddag on Swedish Radio P2. The recording, with Andreas Sundén and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Christian Eggen, is from the premiere at a concert with works exclusively by Composer of Spring Jörgen Dafgård on May 4 2013 at the Berwald Hall. After the broadcasting the program can be heard on the web radio for a month.
 Soloist Andreas Sundén and conductor Christian Eggen together with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra at the premiere of Jörgen Dafgård's clarinet concerto Caprism. (Photo: Arne Hyckenberg) 10 Dec 2013
The performance of Mahler Revisited by the Zagros Ensemble at the Nordic Music Days 2013 in Helsinki was a success. Jörgen Dafgård's YouTube channel now has a video of the performance, given in the new Musiikkitalo Camerata Hall. Musicians: Auli Kontinen - flute, Mikk Murdvee - violin, Mika Uuksulainen - cello and Sonja Fräki - piano.
31 Oct 2013
The Swedish saxophone quartet Rollin' Phones has commissioned a work from Jörgen Dafgård which is now ready. The work, with the title Saxophone Quartet – Moving and Touching, consists of five movements and has a duration of 20 minutes. It will be premiered in Spring 2014. The five movements were composed on different occasions around August. Dafgård found his inspiration from Nordic nature and from experiences (relations and activities) in his life at the time. The first and the last movement make up a balancing pair due to their longer duration – just over five minutes. In between comes three shorter movements lasting between two-and-a-half and three minutes. Movements two and four are insistently extrovert while movements one, three and five are more lyrical. As for their character, the first and the fourth are the most complex of the movements, while the others are more unified in their expression. The movements can also be played as pieces of their own.
 Excerpt from Saxophone Quartet – Moving and Touching 01 Oct 2013
Jörgen Dafgård's clarinet quintet Whims and Wizardry has been nominated for the Swedish Music Publishers' Award in the chamber music cathegory. After the jury's final decision the awards will be given on Friday the 8th of November at Berns in Stockholm.
 Whims and Wizardry, published by Gehrmans. 24 Sep 2013
The Swedish Chamber Orchestra will perform Jörgen Dafgård's Sinfonia No 1 under the direction of the South African conductor Gerard Korsten at the Örebro Concert Hall on Thursday the 3rd of October at 7:00 pm. From the homepage of the orchestra: "Jörgen Dafgård is a composer who has become very popular and we have long wished to perform his Sinfonia. It is exciting and attractive music." At the concert the mezzo soprano Katarina Karnéus will also sing a new song cycle by Johan Ullén as well as music by Haydn, whose 82nd symphony will also be the final number of the concert.
 The Swedish Chamber Orchestra 05 Sep 2013
In a short video the solo clarinetist Andreas Sundén here presents Jörgen Dafgård's new Clarinet Concerto. Between some samples from his first performance of the work at the Stockholm Berwald Hall in May, Andreas Sundén says a few words about the concerto and how he worked with it.
08 Jun 2013
Jörgen Dafgård's Mahler Revisited has been selected for the Nordic Music Days 2013 in Helsinki, Finland. "Parallel Societies" is the theme for this year's festival which is scheduled for October 15-19. Mahler Revisited will be performed by the Zagros Ensemble during a concert titled "Cross-fertilization" at the Camerata Hall in the Helsinki Music Centre on Saturday the 19th of October at 16 pm.
Mahler Revisited is a short recomposition of the second movement from Mahlers Fifth Symphony for a small chamber ensemble consisting of flute, violin, cello and piano. The beginning and ending of the Mahler movement are recognizable, but in between, most of it is completely different. Mahler revisited ia available in a new note edition published by Gehrmans. Here the piece is heard in a recording with the Peärls Before Swïne Experience, available on .
17 May 2013
Tonight at 7:03 pm Swedish Radio P2 will be broadcasting Jörgen Dafgård's portrait concert as composer of spring at Berwaldhallen in Stockholm (recorded on May the 4th). On the program is the premiere of Dafgård's new Clarinet Concerto in three movements, with Andreas Sundén as soloist. The concert starts with Esprit (which consists of 25 minutes of fast music) and after the break Sinfonia No 1 is played. In the break Andreas Sundén and Jörgen Dafgård are interviewed. The Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra here gives a top notch performance under the direction of Christian Eggen (despite the unusually short rehearsal time) and the interpretations also work very well; so don't miss this! The music from the portrait concert will be reprised by P2 on May 22 around 10:30 am.
On Sunday at 2 pm Swedish Radio P2 will also broadcast an hour long documentary about Jörgen Dafgård by Anders Olsén. Earlier this week two of Jörgen Dafgård's orchestral works was also aired on Swedish Radio P2. Through Fire and Water could be heard on Wednesday the 15th of May and Volo on Thursday the 16th of May. All programs can be heard for another 30 days on the web. Thereafter a slightly shortened pod version of the documentary can be downloaded here.  Andreas Sundén, Christian Eggen och Sveriges Radios Symfoniorkester. (Foto: Arne Hyckenberg) 06 May 2013
Composer of spring Jörgen Dafgård was portrayed at Saturday's concert at Berwaldhallen in Stockholm by the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Christian Eggen. The concert started with Esprit and ended with Sinfonia No 1. Before the break Dafgård's new Clarinet Concerto was premiered with the soloist Andreas Sundén. The Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter reviewed the portrait concert. In the words of Johanna Paulsson:
04 May 2013
Before Jörgen Dafgård's portrait concert as composer of spring at Berwaldhallen on May the 4th at 15:00 p.m. the Swedish newspaper Sydsvenskan published an interview with Dafgård, where he among other things tells about his new clarinet concerto. It will be premiered at the portrait concert by Andreas Sundén together with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the conductor Christian Eggen, who will also begin the concert with Dafgård's Esprit and after the break will perform his Sinfonia No 1.
29 Apr 2013
Composer of spring Jörgen Dafgård will be presented at a portrait concert on Saturday the 4th of May, at 3.00 p.m. at the Berwald hall in Stockholm. This will be the premiere of his newly written Clarinet Concerto with Andreas Sundén as soloist together with the conductor Christian Eggen and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, which will also be heard in the first piece of the concert, Dafgård's Esprit and, after the intermission, in his Sinfonia No 1.
One hour before the concert a pre-concert talk will be held with Katarina Lindblad and Jörgen Dafgård in the foyer of the Berwald Hall. The publisher Gehrmans will also have an exposition of Dafgård's scores in the foyer in connection with the concert.
Jörgen Dafgård found inspiration for his Clarinet Concerto during a stay on Capri, where the isle's rocky terrain, the famous blue cave and the mythical history of the isle gave inspiration to one each of three movements of the almost half an hour long work.
Originally written for an ensemble of eleven instruments, Esprit will be played by a larger force at the concert. It starts playfully, but gradually the course of events gets more and more adventurous and filled with excitement and drama, to finally reach a euforic ending.
Like Esprit, Sinfonia No 1 is written in one continuous movement which can also be heard as a sequence of linked movements. Sinfonia No 1 develops towards a polyrhythmic synthesis of the two- and four-part rhythms of the introduction and the three-part rhythms introduced in the second movement. A lot happens on the way.
The Clarinet Concerto was commissioned by the Berwald Hall. Esprit och Sinfonia No 1 were both commissioned by the Nordic Chamber Orchestra. More exhaustive programme notes to the latter two can be found on this site under "works".
Here is a short trailer where Jörgen Dafgård tells a little about the Clarinet Concerto:
29 Apr 2013
As an introduction to Jörgen Dafgård's portrait concert as composer of spring on May the 4th, the latest issue of Berwaldhallen's monthly programme magazine has two articles about the composer. Carlhåkan Larsén makes a both broad and thorough characterization and Mikaela Kindblom focuses on the works that will be performed at the portrait concert: Esprit, Sinfonia No 1 and a new Clarinet Concerto that will be premiered by Andreas Sundén. Christian Eggen will conduct the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra at the portrait concert at Berwaldhallen in Stockholm on May the 4th at 3.00 p.m.
Berwaldhallens programme magazine can be read in your browser here or be downloaded as a pdf file here.    
28 Apr 2013
The latest issue of Nordic Highlights has an article by Carlhåkan Larsén about Jörgen Dafgård and his music. In addition to some biographical information and some interview reflections from the composer, it focuses to some extent on the works that will be performed at Jörgen Dafgård's Composer of Spring portrait concert at Berwaldhallen in Stockholm on Saturday the 4th, at 3:00 p.m. On that occasion the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, led by Christian Eggen, will perform Jörgen Dafgård's works Esprit and Sinfonia No 1, as well as his newly written Clarinet Concerto, which will be premiered with Andreas Sundén as soloist.
The article can be opened as a pdf in English on this link. On the linked page there are also some samples of Jörgen Dafgård's music.  
27 Apr 2013
Composer of Spring Jörgen Dafgård is presented in a section of his own on the website of the Stockholm Berwald Hall. Among other things this short movie by Bilbo Lantto can be found there where Jörgen Dafgård tells about his composing (in Swedish, but also including music, paintings, drawings, scores etc by Dafgård). Highly recommended for those interested!
24 Apr 2013
The score and parts of Jörgen Dafgård's Mahler Revisited are now available through Gehrmans.
Mahler Revisited is a short recomposition of the second movement from Mahlers Fifth Symphony for a small chamber ensemble consisting of flute, violin, cello and piano. The beginning and ending of the Mahler movement are recognizable, but in between, most of it is completely different. Only a small portion of the thematic material is used – and in a very different way, emphasizing the inherent mechanical and polyrhythmic tendencies a lot. Clockworks, cogs and gear mechanisms may come to mind. Sporadically and at the end, the contrasting lyrical character breaks through. Mahler Revisited was written for The Peärls Before Swïne Experience as a commission from the newspaper Dagens Nyheter for a series of remixes of classical masterpieces that was published on the newspaper's website www.dn.se in 2010. A studio recording of the piece was released on CD by Chamber Sound in 2011. 
15 Apr 2013
The Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra's performed Veils/Slöjor at two almost sold-out concerts at the Stockholm Berwald Hall under the direction of Manfred Honeck on April the 12th and 13th. The concert on April the 12th was broadcasted live on Swedish Radio P2 and will be sent again on April the 17th at 10.30 a.m. The live broadcast can be heard in recorded form on the web radio. At the time 00:27:05 in the broadcast the concert starts. Preceding the concert, an interview with Jörgen Dafgård starts at 00:03:12. In the intermission the Berwald Hall's head of planning Hanns Rodell then says a few words about Veils at 01:14:53.
On April the 12th the Swedish Radio P2 also brodcasted Jörgen Dafgård's choir piece My Garden – Like the Beach, in a recording with the Mikaeli Chamber Choir conducted by Anders Eby. This can be heard here. On the day before the Swedish Radio P2 also aired Jörgen Dafgård's piece For the Sleeping – Dream Sonata for viola and electronics, in a recording with Henrik Frendin, published on CD by Phono Suecia. This can be heard here at 00:48:57. 14 Apr 2013
Today Svenska Dagbladet published a review of Friday's concert at the Stockholm Berwald Hall with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Manfred Honeck. This is what Sofia Lilly Jönsson writes about Veils/Slöjor: "Jörgen Dafgård is Composer of Spring at the Berwald Hall. Friday's concert therefore started with his Veils from 2000, a visual music that reminded me more of film noir than of the Orient (or wherever the veils came from). I am looking forward to hearing more from him."
05 Apr 2013
On April 12 and 13 the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra will perform Jörgen Dafgård's prize-winning piece Veils/Slöjor at the Stockholm Berwald Hall under the direction of Manfred Honeck, who led the premiere of the work in 2000. This will be the tenth and eleventh performance of Veils. Also on the programme: Tchaikovsky's Rococo Variations with Truls Mørk on cello and Bruckner's fourth symphony. The concert is part of the presentation of Jörgen Dafgård as Composer of Spring at the Berwald Hall.
Here the concert is presentad by Andreas Sundén (who will be the soloist in the premiere of Jörgen Dafgård's newly written Clarinet Concerto on May the 4th): 03 Apr 2013
Jörgen Dafgård has written a Clarinet Concerto which is now finished and delivered. It will be premiered at the Berwald Hall on Saturday the 4th of May at 3.00 p.m. with Andreas Sundén as soloist and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Christian Eggen. Jörgen Dafgård's Esprit and Sinfonia No 1 will also be preformed on the same concert, where Dafgård, as composer of spring in the Berwald Hall, is portrayed
The Clarinet Concerto is a bit over 28 minutes long and written in three movements with a total of 898 bars. The cooperation between Jörgen Dafgård and Andreas Sundén started around a year ago. Jörgen Dafgård found inspiration for the Clarinet Concerto during a stay on Capri for three weeks in Spring 2012. After having written the clarinet quintet Whims and Wizardry, which was premiered at Stöde Musikvecka in July 2012, Dafgård started to write seriously on the Clarinet Concerto in August 2012. The final barline was reached on March the 12th 2013. The Clarinet Concerto is published by Gehrmans. 
20 Feb 2013
Today at 10.30 a.m. Jörgen Dafgård's Volo can be heard on Swedish Radio P2 with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra led by Jukka-Pekka Saraste. It is a recording from the live radio concert at the Stockholm Berwald Hall on Friday, February 15. The whole broadcasting from Friday can also be heard on the web radio until the middle of March. Included there is also an interview with the composer (with excerpts from Dafgård's Veils and Through Fire and Water).
17 Feb 2013
The two leading Swedish newspapers Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet reviewed Friday's concert in the Stockholm Berwald Hall with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Jukka-Pekka Saraste. About Volo Johanna Paulsson from Dagens Nyheter wrote: "The concert also provided an opportunity to get a bit acquainted with Composer of Spring Jörgen Dafgård, also by himself an expert of both joining and keeping apart two different musical heritages. The night's opening piece 'Volo' for string orchestra was characterized by rhythmical figures in rousing dance, finely captured in flight over both strings and life's pressing treadwheel."
 
14 Feb 2013
In the Composer of Spring series the Stockholm Berwald Hall this year presents a number of works by Jörgen Dafgård, starting off the 15 and 16 February with two performances of Volo by the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Jukka-Pekka Saraste. In this article, publiched 2009 in the periodical Nutida Musik, Jörgen Dafgård tells about the writing process behind Volo.
 
06 Feb 2013
Jörgen Dafgård is composer of the spring at the Berwald Hall. Next week the first work will be presented. Jukka-Pekka Saraste will conduct the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra in two performances of Volo for strings, on February 15 and 16, at 7.30 pm and 3 pm respectively, at Berwaldhallen in Stockholm.
Here is a trailer where the composer tells about composing and the piece Volo: 31 Jan 2013
Now on Sunday, February 3 the Gustav Klimt Quartet will perform Jörgen Dafgård's Frames and Flow for string trio and other contemporary Swedish and Danish works at a concert at 4 pm at Ribe Kunstmuseum in Ribe, Denmark.
03 Nov 2012
Today Jörgen Dafgård's Veils for orchestra will be broadcast on Swedish Radio P2 at 4:10 pm. Manfred Honeck conducts the Swedish Radio Sympony Orchestra in a recording from the first performance in April 2000.
28 Sep 2012
Susanne Holmlund wrote a praising review in Sundsvalls Tidning after the premiere of Jörgen Dafgård's Esprit with the Nordic Chamber Ensemble. Under the headline "Esprit in Three Ways" she wrote:
More people should have listened to such a program. First two of the great classics of the chamber music litterature and then a premiere that hopefully at least will become a classic for the ensemble. … Jörgen Dafgård wrote a great part of his Esprit out in the nature, but for me it became a town painting depicting how the evening descends over the never stopping flow of the traffic. It starts not unlike Poulenc: the same lightness, the same undercurrent of swinging pulse and some kind of confident, warm soft jazz harmony. But here it never gets cheeky. Instead the instruments set off to more and more frisky adventures, build drama and insistent rhythm in the manner of The Rite of Spring, form a teeming swarm, sometimes run into eachother – but always return to the safe velvety dusk mood. It is full of effects and witty rhythms that can drive a musician crazy, but get audiences to sway in their chairs from enjoyment; thus the piece is as easy to listen to as it is hard to play. This is a piece which we hope to hear again and which has its own spirit, its own joie de vivre. Like the other two. 24 Sep 2012
This week the Nordic Chamber Ensemble will perform Jörgen Dafgård's new work Esprit for the first time in Sundsvall and Härnösand. The 24 minute work for eleven musicians is commissioned by the Nordic Chamber Ensemble and contains fast music throughout. Esprit is written in one movement but is structured in several continuous but contrasting sections. There is a dramaturgical thread running through the whole work. It starts playfully, but gradually the course of events gets more and more adventurous and filled with excitement and drama, to finally reach a euforic ending. Esprit is published by Gehrmans.
To hear the Nordic Chamber Ensemble is to experience chamber music making in a larger scale. The ensemble plays without a conductor and instead the musicians together actively participates in the creation. The Nordic Chamber Ensemble has prepared the premiere of Esprit ambitiously. Esprit will be performed at St Petrilogen in Härnösand on September 26 at 7 pm and at the Town Hall in Sundsvall on September 27 at 7 pm. Before the break the ensemble will also perform works by Poulenc and Schubert. 18 Aug 2012
Today the premiere of Jörgen Dafgård's new Clarinet Quintet Whims and Wizardry can be heard on the radio. At 15:01 pm Swedish Radio P2 is broadcasting the final concert of the festival Stöde Musikvecka, which occurred three weeks ago. The Clarinet Quintet can be heard half an hour into the program. The premiere is performed by Sebastian Manz on clarinet and a string quartet consisting of David Schultheiss, Janis Olsson, Wen Xiao Zheng and Katerina Giannitsioti. Webradio: sr.se/p2
The Clarinet Quintet Whims and Wizardry is written in four movements and has a duration of around 20 minutes. It is published by Gehrmans. 25 May 2012
Jörgen Dafgård's new work Esprit for 11 instruments will be premiered by The Nordic Chamber Ensemble on September 27, 2012 at the Town Hall in Sundsvall. The 24 minute work for eleven musicians is commissioned by the Nordic Chamber Ensemble and contains fast music throughout. Esprit is written in one movement but is structured in several continuous but contrasting sections and can formally be described as a sinfonietta. There is a dramaturgical thread running through the whole work. It starts playfully, but gradually the course of events gets more and more adventurous and filled with excitement and drama, to finally reach a euforic ending.
25 May 2012
Jörgen Dafgård is composer of the Spring at the Berwald Hall in 2013. This can be read in the newly published season's program of the Berwald Hall. Dafgård's prize-winning work Veils will be performed by the Swedish Radio Symhony Orchestra under the direction of Manfred Honeck in April and more orchestral music by Dafgård will follow in May. More to be announced shortly.
10 Apr 2012
Jörgen Dafgård's Snösmältning for piano will be premiered at Stöde Musikvecka by Lars Jönsson at the festival's opening concert on July 23 2012 at 7:00 p.m. in the church of Stöde. The festival has also commissioned a new work by Jörgen Dafgård, namely a Clarinet Quintet, which will be premiered at the festival's final concert on July 28 2012 at 7:00 p.m. in the church of Stöde. The first performance will be made by an international elite ensemble consisting of the clarinetist Sebastian Manz, the violinists David Schultheiss and Janis Olsson, the alto violinist Wen Xiao Zheng and the cellist Kateryna Giannisiotis.
03 Jan 2012
The homepage is now updated with new sound files, pictures and texts. It has also been redesigned, by Emilie Dafgård. Furthermore, it is now possible to comment the news. Welcome to have a look around!
26 Oct 2011
Tonight Jörgen Dafgård's For the Sleeping – Dream Sonata for viola and electronics is played live at club Ambush in Stockholm, with Sara Munters on viola. Earlier this year Sara Munters also performed For the Sleeping on a concert at the Royal College of Music in February, as well as on her graduation concert at Edsberg on May 25. For the Sleeping has now been performed on at least eleven concerts i Sweden, and has also recently been in demand by for example Scottish and Norwegian musicians.
09 Oct 2011
From the new CD, Jörgen Dafgård's Mahler Revisited is back this week on Composer's Radio.
09 Aug 2011
Esprit, the commission from The Nordic Chamber Ensemble, is now completed. The work has a duration of around 24 minutes and contains fast music throughout. It is written in one movement but is structured in several continuous but contrasting sections and can formally be described as a sinfonietta. There is a dramaturgical thread running through the whole work. It starts playfully, but gradually the course of events gets more and more adventurous and filled with excitement and drama, to finally reach a euforic ending. The rhytmic and gestural movement is a key element in the work and has on the whole a lively and impulsive character which supports both the playfulness and the thrill. Esprit will be premiered by The Nordic Chamber Ensemble later this season (no details are known yet). The work will be published by Gehrmans.
12 Jun 2011
Jörgen Dafgård's Mahler Revisited, which has newly been released on CD in a recording with The Peärls Before Swïne Experience, can now be heard on Composer's Radio, which is The Society of Swedish Composers' web radio.
At the end of May the CD recording of Jörgen Dafgård's String Quartet I by The Aniara Quartet was also once again broadcasted by Composer's Radio. Henrik Frendin's CD recording of Dafgård's For the Sleeping - Dream Sonata for viola and electronics has also recently been broadcasted by Composer's Radio. 19 May 2011
Jörgen Dafgård's composition Mahler Revisited from 2010 is now available on CD in a recording with the well-renowned ensemble The Peärls Before Swïne Experience. "Communication - Perspectives 2002 - 10" is the title of the CD which is published by Chamber Sound and features music by different composers. Mahler Revisited was commissioned by the leading Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter and is a free recomposition of material from the second movement from Gustav Mahler's fifth symphony.
16 May 2011
The score to Jörgen Dafgård's well-received work Through Fire and Water for large orchestra is now available through the publisher Gehrmans. It is an optimized score with carefully designed notation and good readability. It has also been updated somewhat in connection with the first performance.
06 Apr 2011
The concert featuring the first performance of Jörgen Dafgård's Through Fire and Water for large orchestra can be heard in its entirety on Swedish Radio P2 on Thursday April 7, at 7:30 p.m. Through Fire and Water, which comes as the third work in the concert, will be heard around 50 minutes into the broadcasting.
On the same day at 10:48 a.m. P2 is also airing Jörgen Dafgård's String Quartet I, as it sound in a recording with the Aniara Quartet released on CD. After the broadcastings the programs can be listened to again for a month on Swedish Radio's web radio. They can be found in "Sändningsarkiv" under P2 Live Klassiskt and Klassisk Förmiddag on the P2 section of Swedish Radio's homepage. String Quartet I can also be heard on the Society of Swedish Composers' web radio Composer's Radio, as the starting work of this year's first new show. One of last year's shows also featured Henrik Frendin's CD recording of Jörgen Dafgård's For the Sleeping - Dream Sonata for viola and pre-recorded part. 20 Feb 2011
On Thursday February 17 Malmö Symphony Orchestra premiered Jörgen Dafgårds newly written Through Fire and Water for large orchestra under the direction of Daniel Raiskin. The premiere was very successful and led to much positive response from the audience, from the musicians and from the press.
"New Smash Hit from Jörgen Dafgård" was the headline on Lars-Erik Larsson's review in Skånska Dagbladet, where he writes: "It is a work with a clear and interresting melodic writing, intelligently cultivated with a clear line and skilful if heavy orchestration. From the impressionism in Mosaïque Vibrante Jörgen Dafgård has now travelled towards a forceful expressionism that almost takes the breath out of the listener. Like many of Jörgen Dafgård's earlier compositions Through Fire and Water will with all probability take place on the standard repertoire of contemporary Swedish orchestral music." "Yesterday I don't think anybody was disappointed… This was absolutely no one-off work." Ulf R Johansson writes in Kvällsposten under the headline "Dafgård's successful baptism". "Promising, not least because Dafgård works with the orchestra, not against it" Matti Edén writes in Sydsvenskan. "Through Fire and Water is yet another work that whets the appetite" Johanna Paulsson from Dagens Nyheter writes in her review "Ordeal Whets the Appetite". More extensive excerpts from the reviews can be found among the concert reviews under the heading Press. 14 Feb 2011
Jörgen Dafgård's new work Through Fire and Water for large orchestra will be premiered by the Malmö Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Daniel Raiskin on Thursday, February 17, at 7:30 p.m. at the Malmö Concert Hall. The concert will be recorded by the Swedish Radio for broadcasting on P2 at a later occasion.
Jörgen Dafgård has here been working a lot with musical characterization and the work can be described as a story about development. The optimistic theme that the clarinet presents rather early has a lot of energy but also something naive about it. It is put to a serious test in a section that depicts the title word Fire, but after having come in contact with a complementary element – Water – it finds its way back and is born again with greater maturity and assurance. This constitutes a musical storyline that probably most people can relate to. The title also alludes to the antique theory that the world is constructed from four elements: earth, air, fire and water. The developmental process that is depicted in the work can be likened to the process of refinement that the alchemists strived for (in their quest for gold) and where the four fundamental elements of antiquity have important roles. 07 Oct 2010
Jörgen Dafgård's prize-winning work Veils (Slöjor) will be performed by the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Xian Zhang at Berwaldhallen in Stockholm on Thursday, October 14, at 6:00 p.m. and on Friday, October 15, at 7:30 p.m. The program also includes Beethoven's Piano Concerto Nr 3 and with Lars Vogt and Elgar's Enigma Variations. The concert on Friday will be broadcast live on Swedish Radio P2 and can be heard again on P2 on Sunday, October 24, at 9:30 p.m.
Veils has been played before at Berwaldhallen, on April 7 and 8 2000, when the work had its first performance as the winning contribution in the composition competition of the Swedish Radio and Berwaldhallen. The first performance was broadcast in many countries around the world. In 2003. several millions of readio listeners could hear Veils broadcast by the British Classic FM and the American NPR, when Veils among a thousand contributions reached the top ten in the world's leading composition competition Masterprize. SInce its first performance Veils has been played a lot by leading Swedish orchestras, most recently at two concerts in May 2008 by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Sakari Oramo. At Berwaldhallen Veils will now have its eighth and ninth concert performance. After the concert on Thursday there will be a release party in the foyer of Berwaldhallen for a CD with music from the series of remixes of classical masterpieces recently published on leading Swedish news site dn.se, to which Jörgen Dafgård has contributed with Mahler Revisited, a recomposition of the second movement from Gustav Mahler's Fifth Symphony, performed by the quartet The Peärls Before Swine Experience. 01 Jul 2010
Jörgen Dafgård's new piece Mahler Revisited, a "remix" of the second movement from Gustav Mahler's Fifth Symphony is now published on leading Swedish news site dn.se as well as on YouTube. The quartet performing Dafgård's free adaptation of the Mahler movement is the well renowned The peärls before swine experience. Welcome to listen to the recording, read the interview (in Swedish) and write a comment on dn.se! You can of course also listen and comment on YouTube.
The recording is made in CoMA's studio in Växjö by Mattias Petersson and Martin Jonsson-Tibblin and will be released on a CD published by CoMA (shortly before the sad termination of their activities due to lack of subsidiaries). 01 Jul 2010
On Saturday, July 10, at 3.49 p.m. Swedish Radio P2 will broadcast Jörgen Dafgård's My Garden – Like the Beach in a recording from a concert in the radio building in Stockholm with the Mikaeli Chamber Choir under the direction of Anders Eby. The program can be heard here until August 9.
01 Jun 2010
Malmö Symphony Orchestra has just released their general program for the next season. Jörgen Dafgård's new work Through Fire and Water for large orchestra will be premiered on February 17 2011. It will be conducted by Daniel Raiskin, who made a fine interpretation of Dafgård's Mosaïque Vibrante with MSO in February this year. There is a midi simulation of Through Fire and Water here to the left. Through Fire and Water will be published by Gehrmans.
29 Mar 2010
Today Jörgen Dafgård's prize-winning work Veils for orchestra can be heard on Swedish Radio P2. It is the recording from the first performance in 2000 with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Manfred Honeck that is broadcast around 11 a.m. in Klassisk förmiddag. The emission can be heard for a month on the program's home page.
17 Mar 2010
Jörgen Dafgård's Volo for string orchestra will be performed by the Malmö Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Alexander Einarsson on Tuesday, April 20, at 7:30 p.m. at Palladium. This will be the fifth performance of Volo since the premiere with Musica Vitae in Autumn 2004, but it will also be the premiere of the revised version of the work which has recently been published on Edition Suecia. In addition to Volo there is among other works on the varied program of the evening a first performance by Peter Bjuhr where also the ContemporarY Ensemble performs.
16 Feb 2010
The Malmö Symphony Orchestra made a committed performance of Jörgen Dafgård's Mosaïque Vibrante under the direction of Daniel Raiskin on Thursday, February 11, at the concert hall, and the audience gave the work a warm and enthusiastic reception. Nothing but praise came from musicians as well as from composers and others in the audience after the concert, and the press was also positive. "It was extremely enjoyable: a refined sparse tone language with a certain Gallic-impressionistic touch and a distinct thread throughout the entire composition", Lars-Erik Larsson wrote among other things in his review in Skånska Dagbladet.
12 Feb 2010
From today on Jörgen Dafgård's For the Sleeping - Dream Sonata for viola and tape can be heard in its entire length on the Society of Swedish Composers' web radio channel Composer's Radio. The recording with Henrik Frendin is from on the CD Viola con forza (Phono Suecia PSCD 151) which was nominated for a Grammis (the Swedish Grammy award) in 2004.
29 Jan 2010
Jörgen Dafgård's Mosaïque Vibrante will be performed by the Malmö Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Daniel Raiskin on Thursday, February 11, at 7:30 p.m. at the Malmö Concert Hall. This will be the premiere of a revised version of Mosaïque Vibrante. The concert starts with Tchaikovsky's symphonic ballad Vojevoden, after which the world pianist Sergio Tiempo performs with the orchestra in Rachmaninov's Rhapsody over a theme by Paganini. Dafgård's Mosaïque Vibrante is played after the break and is followed by Stravinsky's long suite compiled in 1945 from The Firebird.
29 Jan 2010
According to the season program, Jörgen Dafgård's new work for large orchestra Through Fire and Water should have been premiered on February 11 by the Malmö Symphony Orchestra. However, in order to save money, the financially troubled orchestra will instead give a concert with works for a somewhat smaller orchestra this night. In the program for February 11 MSO has replaced their commissioned work Through Fire and Water, which was completed some time ago, with Jörgen Dafgård's Mosaïque Vibrante. Through Fire and Water will be premiered by MSO on a later occasion.
06 Nov 2009
In the latest issue of the periodical Nutida Musik Jörgen Dafgård tells about how Volo came into being in his essay "Flyktförsök. Om den kreativa processen bakom Volo". Dafgård tells personally about the creative process behind Volo from idea to performance and analyses at the same time the work's formal development seen as a dynamic interplay of forces.
09 Sep 2009
Jörgen Dafgård's Volo for string orchestra is now available in a new revised edition on Edition Suecia. The score is the first to be given the publisher's new semi-transparent cover. The both playfully and wildly rhythmical work got good reviews throughout and was very appreciated during the tour that the commissioner Musica Vitae made in connection with the first performance in Autumn 2004.
07 Apr 2009
A new work for large orchestra by Jörgen Dafgård titled Through Fire and Water is now completed. The work, which has a duration of thirteen minutes, was presented at the beginning of February for the commissioner Malmö Symphony Orchestra, who intends to perform it for the first time at the beginning of next year. If you want to know how it sounds, you can already listen to a computer-simulated version here to the left under the heading Listen. Through Fire and Water will be published by Gehrmans.
31 Mar 2009
Shortly Volo for string orchestra will be published by Edition Suecia. Before the publication the work has gone through a thorough revision. The notation has been improved, some completing indications have been added and some passages have been reworked for practical reasons or to create better transitions. The revision is based on experiences during rehearsals and concert performances of the work. Moreover, especially the transitions have been overlooked in order to work out certain original compositional ideas in a more full-bodied way.
11 Mar 2009
A new work for large orchestra by Jörgen Dafgård titled Ad Astra was completed in a first version at the beginning of January. The six minutes long raw version was sent in to a composition competition preceding Pyromusikale, a large festival with music accompanying fireworks at Tempelhof Airport in Berlin on 9-11 July. According to the jury's chairman Achim Schwarze a large number of highly qualified contributions from all around the world had been sent in to the competition. In a letter to the composer he tells that Ad Astra has reached a good place in the competition, sends an invitation and free tickets to the festival and hopes that the composer will participate in the next competition. Even if Ad Astra wasn't among the three winning contributions, Dafgård is satisfied with the result, especially when keeping in mind that, since January, a lot of details in the instrumentation and dynamics of the piece has been added. Ad Astra can be seen as an offshoot of the larger work Through Fire and Water, which is commissioned by the Malmö Symphony Orchestra. More about the latter shortly.
20 Nov 2008
During the publisher Gehrmans' Autumn Concert on 19 November at Forum in Stockholm, the pianist Niklas Sivelöv premiered Jörgen Dafgård's newly written Bagatell for piano. The short piece was part of a longer joint composition to which many of Gehrmans' composers had contributed. As usual the Autumn Concert was followed by a party where many well-known profiles from the Swedish music scene were present. At the same event in 2008 the conductor Aders Eby led the Mikaeli Chamber Choir in Jörgen Dafgård's My Garden - Like the Beach.
28 Oct 2008
On October the 28th Jörgen Dafgård met the Nordic Chamber Ensemble to discuss the new commission. Starting from music examples played by the composer and the ensemble, the discussion concerned form, expression and practical conditions. The new work will be around twenty minutes long and have its first performance in 2010.
15 Sep 2008
Reviews (in Swedish) from the performances of Jörgen Dafgård's Veils by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Sakari Oramo in May can now be found among the concert reviews under the heading Press. Veils was throughout very well received by press and audience alike. Musicians, conductors, composers and others expressed themselves very enthusiastically about the work after the concerts.
12 May 2008
Soon it is time for the new Chief Conductor Sakari Oramo to conduct the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra in two performances of Jörgen Dafgård's Veils. The performances take place at the Stockholm Concert Hall on Thursday the 15th of May at 19.30 and on Saturday the 17th of May at 15.00. Both concerts end with Sheherazade by Rimsky-Korsakov. Before the intermission violinist Lisa Batiashvili is featured as soloist, on the 15th May in Magnus Lindberg's Violin Concerto and on the 17th May with Lawrence Power in Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante for violin, viola and orchestra. With these concerts Veils gets it's sixth and seventh concert performance.
28 Apr 2008
The Nordic Chamber Orchestra in Sundsvall has received a larger amount from the Swedish Arts Council to commission a new work from Jörgen Dafgård. The work will be written for the Nordic Chamber Ensemble, who plans to perform it in 2010 and possibly tour with it on the Swedish west coast and in Denmark.
28 Jan 2008
Jörgen Dafgård's Volo for string orchestra will be published by Edition Suecia. The decision was made at the meeting of the publishing committee on 14 December. Volo was written in 2004 as a commission from the string orchestra Musica Vitae and was well received by audience and critics alike during the orchestra's tour in November the same year.
21 Jan 2008
The music publisher Gehrmans has now published Jörgen Dafgård's Sinfonia No 1. Gehrmans has previously published Veils for orchestra and My Garden – Like the Beach for mixed choir a cappella by Dafgård. Sinfonia No 1 was first performed in Sundsvall on October 2004 by the Nordic Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Christian Lindberg.
14 Jan 2008
On Saturday 12 January 15.49pm Swedish Radio P2 broadcast Jörgen Dafgård's My Garden – Like the Beach in a recording from a concert in the radio building in Stockholm with the Mikaeli Chamber Choir under the direction of Anders Eby. The program can be heard here until 11 February.
On Thursday 23 August 10.03am Swedish Radio P2 broadcast Jörgen Dafgård's Veils in a recording from a concert at the Berwald Hall in Stockholm with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Manfred Honeck. More information about the program here. 26 Aug 2007
In February this year all Nordic composers were invited to compose short études for girls choir. Jörgen Dafgård´s newly written Fortuna is one of the five contributions which has now been chosen for a workshop with the Adolf Fredrik´s Girls Choir and their leader Bosse Johansson. The workshop, with the headline Youth Choir Unlimited, will take place during the Nordic Music Days in Norrköping, Sweden, on Thursday August 30 between 13.30 and 17.00 in Viran, Louis de Geer Concert and Congress. The aim of the workshop is to broaden the choir´s venues for expression and to find new collaborative ventures with composers. Moderator is the composer Karin Rehnqvist.
14 May 2007
New Chief Conductor Sakari Oramo will conduct the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra in two performances of Jörgen Dafgård's Veils on the 15th and 17th of May 2008 at the Stockholm Concert Hall. Both concerts will end with Sheherazade by Rimsky-Korsakov. Before the intermission violinist Lisa Batiashvili is featured as soloist, on the 15th May in Magnus Lindberg's Violin Concerto and on the 17th May with Lawrence Power in Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante for violin, viola and orchestra. With the concerts in May 2008 Veils will be given it's sixth and seventh concert performance.
14 May 2007
On Tuesday the fifth of June the Romanian viola player Elena Urdea will perform Jörgen Dafgård's For the Sleeping – Dream Sonata for viola and tape at a concert starting at 19.30 in Lilla Salen at the Malmö Academy of Music. This will be the eighth time For the Sleeping is played live at a concert. For the Sleeping has previously been performed many times by, among others, Henrik Frendin, who has also recorded the work on CD for Phono Suecia.
21 Apr 2007
The homepage is now redesigned. Moreover a collection of reviews is now available under Press.
25 Feb 2007
An agreement with the music publisher Gehrmans has now been reached concerning publication of Jörgen Dafgård's Sinfonia No 1. Gehrmans is also since earlier the publisher of Dafgård's My Garden – Like the Beach for mixed choir a capella and Veils for orchestra. Sinfonia No 1 was first performed in Sundsvall in October 2004 by the Nordic Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Christian Lindberg.
17 Jan 2007
Radio Bremen Nordwestradio will send a program about string quartets, where the CD recording by the Aniara Quartet of String Quartet I by Jörgen Dafgård is one of the features. The program is part of the series Musica Nova, which is dealing with contemporary art music.
Saturday 3 February 3.00-4.20pm Swedish Radio P2 will broadcast My Garden – Like the Beach by Jörgen Dafgård in a recording from a concert on the theme of love given by Mikaeli Chamber Choir under the direction of Anders Eby. The concert took place in the radio building in Stockholm on the14th of October 2006. Mikaeli Chamber Choir and Anders Eby also performed My Garden – Like the Beach during the music publisher Gehrmans annual autumn concert in the Church of Adolf Fredrik in Stockholm on the 29th of November. The next day you could once again hear My Garden – Like the Beach, this time in an interpretation by Musikhögskolans Vokalensemble under the direction of Bernard Schmidt during a concert at the Royal College of Music. |